The Minnesota Thunder came, saw and conquered at PGE Park last night beating a sorry looking Timbers three-nil. The impressive Marco Ferruzzi, all soft touches in midfield and a dancing shock of dark hair, hit an 18 yrd shot past Spiteri in the 30th minute...I wrote "cool" in my notes, but it was a more impressive strike than that implies. 9 minutes later on 39' it was Marshall Moorhead again supplying the pass, this time to the confident and skillful Johnny Torres, and the Thunder striker broke from about 25 yds towards goal, hitting another clean shot past Spiteri. 2 - 0 Thunder!

The Thunder finished the game on 75' after Ferruzzi found winger Kilickan and his cross from the right evaded all but recent substitute Johnny Menyongar and he tapped in from close-range.

Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar received a red card on 63' after retaliating after a hard challenge by Anderson and by the final whistle the Thunder had outshot the Timbers 15-3, a statistic that capped a highly disappointing night.

Oregonian On Sagare Taylor said he needs international clearance from the English Football Association before Sagare, 23, can rejoin the Timbers.
"I'm optimistic we'll have him (tonight), but it's not yet 100 percent certain," Taylor said Monday.

Tennyson on 2', Chala equilized on 30' and then Korthus on 45' gave the Storm their first win over the Timbers. The Timbers fall to last place in the Pacific Division and Gavin Wilkinson suffered an injury to his right leg late in the first half.

Jake Sagare to ReturnThe nippy left sided winger has reportedly re-signed to the Timbers and will be available for this Tuesday's game at PGE Park against Minnesota.

Bobby Howe Interviewed for California Youth Soccer Position

Bobby Howe was one of the candidates for the recently filled post of Director of Coaching and Player Development for the California Youth Soccer Association according to this report from the Ventura County Star.

The Portland Timbers lost again to Seattle on Sunday evening, going down to a Marco Velez goal on 15’. The Timbers have now lost 3 straight games to Seattle this year and are 2-8-1 overall against the Sounders for the past 3 seasons.

The Timbers (2-4-0) now prepare for their next game in Calgary on Sunday before 2 games at PGE Park next week, on Tuesday against Minnesota and against Vancouver on Thursday.

The Timbers easily beat the Calgary Storm at PGE Park tonight with the 2 players honored before the game for their goal scoring exploits last year both getting on the score sheet. The Timbers got off to a flying start when on about 30 seconds Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar's cross from the right was headed down past Calgary keeper Glasnovic by McKinley Tennyson for Fadi Afash to tap into the open net. The dynamic duo struck again on 6' when a ball from the back from Aaron Heinzen was headed down by Tennyson to Afash. The Syrian returned the pass and Tennyson beat Glasnovic cutting in from the left side of the box. 2 - 0 Timbers.

It was a great start for Portland, but the early goals also led to the team sitting back and Calgary came back into the game through a couple of uncharacteristic errors from Gavin Wilkinson. First Nick Downing had to cover to prevent Mark Korthius from baring down on keeper Burgman on 17' and on 19' Wilkinson again lost out, this time to the busy Dawes who chipped over the bar. The Storm has another chance on 32' when Bergman had to save from Zuniga (one of the better Calgary players on the night) from 12 yds. The Storm probably got their deserved goal on 36' after a mistake from keeper Burgman. Unable to hold a cross from Chala, Korthius hit the rebound from close in to make it 2-1.

The Timbers went in at half time 3-1 up however after Alcaraz-Cuellar threaded the ball to Tennyson on the right side of the box and he slipped it past the Storm keeper Glasnovic on 46'.

The second half started slowly and with both Afash and Tennson replaced (by Antoniuk and Vaughn respectively), and the game becoming slightly bad-tempered, the Timbers rounded off a good night when Winters' through ball on 79' allowed Melendez to hook the ball over Glasnovic and into the Storm net to make it 4-1 Timbers.

I'm not sure about the webcast situation for tonight's game against Calgary but anyhow i'm planning to do one of my rare text updates on the game. As before it's worth noting that this might not work as planned but if it does you can find updates (at the very least the score) here

Soccer America's article about the soon to be announced venue for the upcoming Women's World Cup. The tournament was moved from original host China due to fears over SARS. Sweden, Italy and Australia also have expressed interest in holding the event and the US has formally submitted a proposal. Bids from other interested countries have to reach FIFA by Thursday.

Although the possible venues have yet to be decided (there has been talk of an all-MLS stadium tournament) Portland could have a decent chance of hosting some games after it's sucess 4 years ago. (Timbers' GM Jim Taylor was heavily involved with the 1999 tournament as Venue Director for Portland)

News that Portland, along with Austin, Denver; Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento and Seattle are being considered as possible 2005 expansion cities for Major League Lacrosse.

More interesting is the mention that founder of the league Jake Steinfeld said he was also exploring a partnership with Major League Soccer and the Women’s United Soccer Association to build and share stadiums that would house teams from the three pro leagues.

instructions
1 click here2 read poorly written comments about tomorrow night's game
3 print out
4 realize that your printer isn't turned on
5 turn on printer
6 print out
7 fold and take to the game in pocket
8 flash to gain entry to any number of swanky pre and post game soireés, members-only and VIP areas

The Timbers put their poor early season form to rest (hopefully for good) with a single goal win in Calgary last night. The Syrian marksman Fadi Afash got his second of the year in the 44th minute from an assist from McKinley Tennyson (Come on McKinley you're falling behind here mate!). Cole Burgman started his first game in goal replacing former U of P keeper Curtis Spiteri.

I know I've promised this before, but this time I mean it. As soon as I finish it there will be a book review incoming...you never know I may even go back and write something about The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro. This time around though it's A Season With Verona, Tim Parks' tale of a season supporting (and travelling to support) Italian team Hellas Verona.

Struggling to get things in order, but now have links for the 2003 roster and basic stats, 2003 results and 2003 A-league attendance (over there on the right!). Hopefully the player profiles will be forthcoming.

Watch out for some more player interviews in the near future and hopefully a replacement 2003 player diary.

Apologies for the dead air for the last couple of weeks, but sometimes a poor timberlog needs to get away, in this case to the cities of AC Roma and AFC Wimbledon.
Now i'm back home, refreshed, but a little confused.
2 games, 2 losses to Seattle and out of the US Open Cup again. Surely I'm stuck in 2002 and once the jet-lag wears off I'll find out that the Timbers have made a stellar start to the new season.